Technical advances in the identification, cloning, expression and manipulation of nucleic acid molecules and deciphering of the human genome have greatly accelerated the discovery of novel therapeutics based upon deciphering of the human genome. Rapid nucleic acid sequencing techniques can now generate sequence information at unprecedented rates and, coupled with computational analyses, allow the assembly of overlapping sequences into the partial and entire genomes as well as the identification of polypeptide-encoding regions. A comparison of a predicted amino acid sequence against a database compilation of known amino acid sequences can allow one to determine the extent of homology to previously identified sequences and/or structural landmarks. The cloning and expression of a polypeptide-encoding region of a nucleic acid molecule provides a polypeptide product for structural and functional analyses. The manipulation of nucleic acid molecules and encoded polypeptides to create variants and derivatives thereof may confer advantageous properties on a product for use as a therapeutic.
In spite of significant technical advances in genome research over the past decade, the potential for the development of novel therapeutics based on the human genome is still largely unrealized. Many genes encoding potentially beneficial polypeptide therapeutics, or those encoding polypeptides which may act as “targets” for therapeutic molecules, have still not been identified. In addition, structural and functional analyses of polypeptide products from many human genes have not been undertaken.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to identify novel polypeptides and nucleic acid molecules encoding the same which have diagnostic or therapeutic benefit.
Most types of intracellular proteins are degraded through the ubiquitin-proteosome pathway. In this system, proteins are marked for protesomal degradation by the conjugation of ubiquitin molecules to the protein. Conjugation of the ubiquitin molecule initially involves activation by the E1 enzyme. Upon activation the ubiquitin molecule is transferred to the E2 enzyme which serves as a carrier-protein. The E2 enzyme interacts with a specific E3 ligase family member. The E3 ligase binds to proteins targeted for degradation and catalyzes the transfer of ubiquitin from the E2 carrier enzyme to the target protein. Since the target protein binds to the ligase prior to conjugatin, E3 ligase is the rate limiting step for ubiquitin conjugation and determines the specificity of the system. The ubiquitin chain serves as a degradation marker for the 26S proteosome (See Ciechanover, EMBO J., 17: 7151-7160, 1998).
There are only a few known E3 ligases and the sequence homology between them is low. The E3α family is the main family of intracellular ubiquitin ligases and is involved in N-end rule pathway of protein degradation. The N-end rule states that there is a strong relation between the in vivo half-life of a protein and the identity of its N-terminal amino acids. Accordingly, E3α enzyme binds directly to the primary destabilizing N-terminal amino acid and catalyzes ubiquitin conjugation thereby targeting the protein for degradation. E3α family members also recognize non-N-end rule substrates (See Ciechanover, EMBO J., 17: 7151-7160, 1998).
The E3α enzyme family currently consists of intracellular enzymes isolated from rabbit (Reiss and Hershiko, J. Biol. Chem. 265: 3685-3690, 1990), mouse (Kwon et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., U.S.A 95: 7898-7903, 1999), yeast (Bartel et al., EMBO J., 9: 3179-3189, 1990) and the C. elegans (Wilson. et al., Nature, 368: 32-38, 1994; Genebank Accession No. U88308) counterparts termed UBR-1. Comparison of these known sequences indicates regions of high similarity regions (I-V) which suggest the existence of a distinct family. The regions of similarity contain essential residues for the recognition of N-end rule substrates. In region I, the residues Cys-145, Val-146, Gly-173, and Asp-176 are known to be necessary for type-1 substrate binding in yeast and are conserved in the mouse. In regions II and III, residues Asp-318, His-321, and Glu-560 are essential for type-2 substrate binding in yeast and are also conserved in the mouse. In addition, there is a conserved zinc-finger domain in region I and a conserved RING-H2 domain in region IV (Kwon et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., U.S.A, 95: 7898-7903, 1999).
The full length mouse E3α cDNA sequence and a partial human E3α nucleotide sequence (≈1 kb) have recently been cloned and characterized as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,861,312 and Kwon et al. (Proc. Natl. Acad. U.S.A., 95: 7898-7908, 1999). The full length mouse E3α cDNA sequence is 5271 bp in length and encodes a 1757 amino acid polypeptide. The mouse E3α gene is localized to the central region of chromosome 2 and is highly expressed in skeletal muscle, heart and brain. The partial human E3α sequence was used to characterize tissue expression and chromosomal localization. This analysis indicated that the human E3α gene is located on chromosome 15q and exhibits a similar expression pattern as mouse E3α with high expression in skeletal muscle, heart and brain. As described herein, the present invention discloses two novel, full length, human E3α sequences (huE3αI and huE3αII) and a novel, full length mouse E3α sequence (muE3αII). Expression of huE3αI and huE3αII mRNA is highly enriched in skeletal muscle tissues. Functionally, huE3α polypeptides are intracellular enzymes that control protein conjugation and degradation.
Increased proteolysis through the ubiquitin-proteosome pathway has been determined to be a major cause of rapid muscle wasting in many pathological states including but not limited to fasting, metabolic acidosis, muscle denervation, kidney failure, renal cachexia, uremia, diabetes mellitus, sepsis, AIDS wasting syndrome, cancer cachexia, negative nitrogen balance cachexia, burns and Cushing's syndrome (See Mitch and Goldberg, New England J. Med, 335: 1897-1905, 1996). Studies in animal models have shown that muscle wasting disorders are associated with increased ubiquitin content in muscles, increased levels of mRNA transcripts encoding ubiquitin, E2 enzyme and proteosome subunit mRNA, and increased ubiquitin-conjugation to muscle-proteins (See Lecker et al., J. Nutr., 129: 227S-237S, 1999). In this context, the N-end rule pathway has been shown to play a role in muscle atrophy. E3α inhibitors, such as dipepetides and methyl ester, reduce the level of ubiquitin conjugation in atrophying rat muscles caused by sepsis, fasting and cancer cachexia (Soloman et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 95: 12602-12607, 1999). These observations indicate that E3α plays a role in the overall increase in ubiquitination that is associated with and may mediate muscle atrophy in catabolic and other disease states.
Thus, identification of members of the N-end rule protein degradation pathway has led to a better understanding of protein degradation in human cells and the mechanisms of protein degradation in pathological condition which involve muscle atrophy. Identification of the two novel human E3α ubiquitin ligase genes and polypeptides, as described herein, will further clarify the understanding of these processes and facilitate the development of therapies for pathological conditions which involve abnornmal or excessive protein degradation including conditions which involve atrophy of muscle.